The night was cold, and he was evidently tired by the long journey from Winnipeg.

Elizabeth was in despair, but could not move him at all.

Then Anderson had intervened; had found somehow and somewhere a trapper just in from the mountains with a wonderful "catch" of fox and marten; and in the amusement of turning over a bundle of magnificent furs, and of buying something straight from the hunter for his mother, the youth had forgotten his waywardness.

Behind his back, Elizabeth had warmly thanked her lieutenant.
"He only wanted a little distraction," Anderson had said, with a shy smile, as though he both liked and disliked her thanks.

And then, impulsively, she had told him a good deal about Philip and his illness, and their mother, and the old house in Cumberland.